2023, Mortiz Mohr (feature debut) -- Netflix
Also known as "Bill Kills: Vol 1".
I wanted to know more about the director and the making of this movie, which is is more than a decade since his last IMDB credit, and his first actual feature film. Sure, the Sam Raimi producer credit tells a short story that he impressed someone and after that, a lot more piled on, but other than a pitch short and some cinematics, what has this guy been doing?
Also because of the 10 minutes of research, all I can say is that I am not entirely convinced some of the "critics" actually watched the movie before they wrote their pieces. Do critics assign other people to watch movies and then write a review from the notes of the assignee?
Anywayz, it was a blast, as I knew it would be. Its a weird, wacky, funny, gorey, action-filled revenge flick kinda-sorta-maybe post-apocalypse (I couldn't tell if the towers were ruined and covered in overgrowth, or the society has perfected growing gardens on office towers) with some very VERY impressive fight choreography. Also, appears Bill was using this movie to kick off the uber-ripped bod he wears in The Crow.
The City is ruled by the Van Der Koy family and once a year they show the people of the city that they are the bosses by selecting 12 random "dissidents" and killing them live on TV -- The Culling. Boy's (Bill Skarsgård, It) family, including his younger sister whom he loves dearly, are killed beside him but somehow he survives and is left for dead, only to be found by Shaman (Yayan Ruhian, John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum), a martial arts kook hiding in the jungle outside the city.
In classic rep theatre Hong Kong revenge flick style, Shaman raises Boy to be a killing machine, through a mix of abuse and martial arts training and a little bit of hallucinogenics. Also, Boy is deaf & mute but has an inner monologue that we can hear, a voice (H Jon Benjamin, Bob's Burgers) from his favourite arcade game, you know that voice, the one that shouts "FIGHT!" in all the fighter games, but with much more to say and not always the most reliable narrator. The communication is expertly paired with Boy's looks, nods, facial expressions, etc. Its a delightfully fun gimmick even when its annoying.
The idea is that Now Well Trained Boy will break into the Van Der Koy compound during the latest airing of The Culling and kill them in front of the people of The City. His whole focus is to kill their matriarch Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen, Taken). But while we are seeing Boy's progress towards getting in, we are also seeing a bit of the chaos behind the family. Hilda's sister Melanie (Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey) is actually running things via her media empire, as Hilda hasn't been seen in a while -- gone a wee bit bonkers, hiding out in her bunker. Hilda's brother Gideon (Brett Gelman, Stranger Things) is just a fop convinced he is writing screenplays/scripts for the farce that is their reign. He writes the words that Melanie's "pretty face" husband Glen (Sharlto Copley, Hardcore Henry; really? he's the 'pretty face' ???) uses to lull the masses -- but Glen's a bit of a fool, a distraction who causes as much trouble as he prevents. Boy's coming for them all.
After accidentally killing Glen, just as he agrees to help them, "You know what, I hate them, they treat me badly, yes YES I will help you... GLUK!" <head squished by a table vice> Boy ends up teaming with The Resistance, which is made up entirely of Basho and Benny. One of the best bits, which reminds us that Boy is deaf and must be hearing everyone via lip reading, is that Boy cannot understand a word Benny is saying. He is either mumbling terribly through his thick beard or speaking a language Boy doesn't understand. Either way, all "we" hear is a string of nonsense words strung together which Boy cannot exactly communicate he doesn't understand. So, plan Not Understood One Bit but they are off to the Van Der Koy compound!
Oh, I should mention, Boy's little sister has now joined him. His dead little sister who is quite dead, and Boy knows she is dead for she is still the age she was when she was shot down by The Culling, but she can talk to him and he can "talk" back, i.e. have conversations with her via the Voice in his Head. I know, its silly and derivative but I love it, especially when Boy simultaneous acknowledges she cannot be real while diving in front of bullets to "save" her.
Often when writing these posts, I hit this far, sometimes two-thirds, sometimes half, and I wonder can i, should i, continue with the play by play. But I run out of steam...
There are two more battles to be had, the one going in, the one getting out. Getting in is realizing the plan Basho & Benny devised, which Boy apparently enacts without understanding a single word of it ("Dodo buns for turtle bird.") which leads him to a confrontation on the set of the current Culling, a colourful winter themed commercial for a breakfast cereal where box characters kill the "contestants". Boy, Basho and Benny intercede, stopping the event live, as he always planned. Boy kills and kills and kills his way to the elevator down to the bunker where Hilda is.
Now, at this point I should mention that as the movie played along, we constantly were given visions from Boy, fever dreams of his near-death at the hands of the Van Der Koys, his brutal training by Shaman, the deaths of his family. But as the movie progresses we see details change. We see that it was Shaman who deafened him and cut his tongue out. We begin to get the idea that Shaman was not as heroic-revenge-nobility driven as we thought.
Also, there has been an incidental Van Der Koy character, an enforcer named June27 (we know that because the subtitles I had on told me so; Jessica Rothe, Happy Death Day), a lithe gunfu warrior wearing a motorcycle helmet with a display screen where the visor would be, which always has her inner monologue running on it. Its a cute gimmick, but really, its just there so that Boy can be communicated with, as he wouldn't be reading any lips behind a helmet.
I give these two points because of The Reveal. Once we have reached The Bunker, where Boy has no real chance to defeat all the guns & thugs of Hilda we learn the true SPOILERIFIC truth behind it all. Boy's family was never murdered by the Van Der Koys, Shaman never rescued him. The truth is revealed by a single painting of the Van Der Koy family, which includes a young Boy. On a Culling day, it was Shaman's family who was killed, somewhat at the hands of Boy himself. But Shaman survived and stole Boy away, and the torture slash training slash hallucinogenics was all an indoctrination plan so Boy could be sent back to destroy his own family. Hilda tries to welcome Boy, her son, back but... yeah, Boy is torn. He knows the truth but he also knows his own family are horrible monsters. "Kill them all!" Mad Hilda screams when she sees Boy is lost to her.
Buuut that then reveals as I was saying all along -- June27 is Mina, Boy's sister. It was not a ghost running around in a ballerina outfit, talking to Boy; she was really nothing more than a deluded, broken mind trying to provide Boy comfort and direction. Once June27 realizes her mother would kill her son returned, she turns on them. Together they take down Shaman and fight their way out.
One last twisty, turning, gunfu battle scene as they kill the remaining guards to escape the bunker, after having killed Hilda and Shaman. The two get out and return to their Happy Place -- a retro video game arcade where we finally meet the game that gives Boy his voice.
This is a movie that depends on you enjoying a certain number of tropes and genre gimmicks. Unlike something ultra-violent but still accessible, like John Wick, one could admire this movie for its audacity and lunacy, but to truly enjoy it, as I did, I would suspect you have to enjoy most of the elements and style choices. But maybe, even if you didn't, you could engage with the art took to make this movie so surprisingly coherent. A creator had a vision, an intent and it was thoroughly seen through, like Boy's journey to destroy the totalitarian rulers of his City.
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